Northampton land cover change 2001-2019

Author

Kent Johnson

Introduction

This report uses data from the National Land Coverage Database (NLCD) to summarize land cover changes in Northampton, Mass. from 2001 to 2019.

The NLCD provides data on land cover and land cover change at a 30 meter resolution. Each 30m square is classified into one of 16 land coverage categories. Data releases every three years, from 2001 to 2019, allow monitoring land cover changes at the resolution of the data.

For this report, the sixteen land cover categories in the NLCD were consolidated to six classes. See the land cover table below for details.

The NLCD data is available from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium. An interactive viewer for the underlying data is available here.

Land cover change in Northampton

These tables and charts show land cover change for the City as a whole.

The first chart shows land cover change since 2001. There has been substantial increase in developed land and decrease in forested land. There are has also been a loss of cultivated land and an increase in herbaceous and shrub land.

The second chart gives more detail on the changes. The first chart, above, gives the impression that forest land has been developed and cultivated land has gone to herbaceous and shrub.

The chart below gives a more nuanced view. It shows that some forest land has become herbaceous/shrub and most of the lost cultivated land has been developed.

This table shows land cover for the City in acres and as a percent of total area, and the change in acreage from 2001 to 2019. The “Percent change” column is the change in acreage as a percent of acreage, not the change in percent of total acres.

Land Cover Acres in Northampton, 2001-2019
2001 2019 Change Percent Change
Acres Percent Acres Percent Acres
Developed 5,966 26% 6,174 27% 208 3%
Forest 10,853 47% 10,672 47% -181 -2%
Cultivated 2,496 11% 2,437 11% -59 -2%
Water/Wetland 3,437 15% 3,424 15% -13 0%
Herbaceous/Shrub 81 0% 136 1% 55 68%
Other 49 0% 38 0% -11 -22%
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium | Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Land cover classes

For this report, the sixteen land cover categories in the NLCD were consolidated to six classes. This table shows the land cover categories in the NLCD and the consolidated classes to which they have been assigned.

Reporting classes for NLCD categories
NLCD category
Developed Developed, Open Space
Developed, Low Intensity
Developed, Medium Intensity
Developed, High Intensity
Forest Deciduous Forest
Evergreen Forest
Mixed Forest
Cultivated Hay/Pasture
Cultivated Crops
Water/Wetland Open Water
Woody Wetlands
Emergent Herbaceuous Wetlands
Herbaceous/Shrub Shrub/Scrub
Herbaceuous
Other Unclassified
Perennial Snow/Ice
Barren Land